Love Flashed Right Before Her Eyes
by She-Whom-Must-Not-Be-Named
Summary: AU Orihime just died. Unfortunately, the people up in Soul Society were too flippin' busy to give her a proper death and forgot to flash her life right before her eyes before she died. So now in a coma, she's having the chance to rewatch everything...
1. The End

****

Love Flashed Right Before Your Eye

**Chapter I:** The End

When she died… she hadn't realised it at the time… but… she could never tell him. It was rather too late, now, wasn't it? When she met the cloaked death god whilst waiting for salvation… the only thing she remembered running through her mind was that… it was terribly lonely.

During those hours she waited, watching her body for the first half… then following him around, watching him continue to live unhindered by her death… she wondered if he knew yet. She wondered how he would react when he did find out. Would he care at all? Against her hopes, she knew it was against his personality to cry over her. But it didn't mean she didn't wish for him to… but she knew he wouldn't. Against her will… she imagined he would simply continue on without her. She knew it was right that he should, but… it didn't mean it didn't hurt.

"Don't be silly, idiot," she reprimanded herself, literally smacking her head painfully. "It's better off if he's happy," she tried to convince herself… so _she_ could move on.

She walked away solemnly so she wouldn't have to bear witness to more suicidal pain after her death.

When she turned the corner is where this tale begins.

She paused in her tracks. "Eh?! Shinigami?!" she shouted, neither in fear or sorrow but in amusement for their actual existence. She immediately ran up to it, too curious to be afraid, cooed in amusement, and began poking the poor thing, who oddly was rather leaning against the dirty wall, slumped over in as much pain as a big black blob could look. "Waah! How cool!" she practically screamed in its ear. "Are you here to take me away now?" she asked, casting away any previous doubts for one cool movie moment. "Is it just like the movies? Eh?"

She ran a few paces back, threw open her arms, spread out her legs and screamed at the top of her lungs, "BYE-BYE CRUEL WORLD!!" She squeezed her eyes close dramatically as the light began to swirl around her, blinding her, the changing of dimensions knocking her off balance.

And she fell over awkwardly on the cement, her imagination getting the best of her.

"Shut up!" the Shinigami seemed to mutter through clenched teeth. "Ugh," its stomach rumbled as it put its hand to what she supposed would be its temples. "I have a freakin' hangover and I don't need all this screaming right now," it seethed mercilessly.

She gulped and immediately straightened up, zipping her mouth.

Like a typical thought to be Death, the Shinigami was cloaked in, well, a black cloak. A hood over its head prevented its face from being seen. It stood about six feet or so, and would have created a rather scary, crap-in-yours-pants effect had not the Shinigami admitted that it had a hangover… and that its voice were so raspy that it was almost falsetto.

Orihime giggled softly open hearing its voice, but tried to keep her face straight.

The Shinigami growled. "What's so funny? Something wrong with my voice?" It reached for its sword threateningly but Orihime just smiled simply and shook her head. He pushed the blade back in and muttered under his breath words indecipherable to Orihime.

"So… anyways," the Shinigami said hazily, trying to walk in front of her, but failing to do so in a straight line and starting to wobble. She ran up to support him (he was oddly warm for a coldhearted death god, though) as it attempted to straighten up and retain some dignity.

"Anyways… uh… shit, what was it? Um… 'Thou… art… endowed…' to something… aw, damn." It pulled out a scroll from the folds of its hakama and started reading it, stumbling through nonsensical words. "'_Thou art endowed to a… cornucopia… of rights due to section 12.7B, article 677, part II, letter R, alphabet'_… wait, what the hell?" it stopped confusedly. It grunted in exasperation and threw the scroll behind him, hitting a poor cat. "Uh, well, look… uh… woman… here's how it is. So, apparently, uh… in short… when… one dies in such a sudden 'holy crap' manner such as yourself, you are, uh… kind of… supposed to… experience your most significant memories and 'see your life flash before your eyes', so to speak." It scratched its head embarrassedly. "So… because of this little fluke on our company's behalf… you're not going to die… at least… not now." It swallowed painfully and resumed. "Um, _we_ have, uh… decided to revoke your actual death until… well… let's just say, you're not going to die. Not now, anyways. You can't die yet."

She looked at him in utter fascination. "So… am I still alive?" she asked excitedly.

"T-technically. You're currently in a coma."

"Really!? So am I ghost right now?" she asked, more excited about the new opportunity than, once again, being scared or depressed about the fact she was dead. "Ne, but ghosts are _scary_ aren't they? Am I scary too?" she giggled, posing femininely. "Or maybe I'm a cute ghost, like in animes! But… it'd but funny to scare people though," she frowned. "Oh, what to do, what to do…" she pondered, rambling to herself so much, she didn't realise someone had to listen.

"Oy! Shut up," it said coldly, lazily pushing itself off the wall it had been leaning against. "Let's go."

It snapped its fingers and walked out a few paces as she fell in behind him unquestioningly like a dog. Once it stopped in a secluded alley, it unsheathed its katana and plunged it into the ground, and a blinding light absorbed them.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Okay, so, starting from now on are pretty much flashbacks... this story is pretty much a flashback. Infortunately, that means pretty much the whole story is in italics so that you can tell who the little Orihime is saying and what big Orihime is saying. All right? All right. That's cool. Anyways... also, considering this is mostly a story based on the whim of what asian dramas do--as in pick random cute moments and try to spin them all together to make a story even though its cohesion sucks--yeah... you can put some cute moments you'd want to read and I'll spin and pick, I really don't care. Under normal circumstances, I hate stories that say "review what you want, you decide the story", but I also hate planning cause it just makes me bored and stop writing so I figure if all this story is pretty much fun cute stuff, yay! But you better hurry up, the flashbacks go in order of age so if I'm at college and you have a middle school moment you'd wanna see, sucks for you. Yeah... trying to come up with a gimmick to get reviews I guess. I get depressed. I can't help it... I have a lot of school work and get thrown off, which is why my Naruto storyis probably on Hiatus.. along with everything els eI've ever written, which is 2 Gakuen Alice stories and a Fullmetal Alchemist one. And a couple thousand Harry Potter ones... --' Heh.


	2. The Beginning

**Love Flashed Right Before Your Eyes  
****Chapter II:** The Prelude

"Ahh! Save me!" Orihime shrieked as one—no, two, three, four, five, _six _kids ran _through_ her. She clang onto the Shinigami for dear life, who stood as still as a statue, obviously used to this sort of thing.

"Ahem," it coughed. She immediately release him and he continued to follow after the kids. "Well, come on," it said impatiently. "Look, there you are. Hurry up and follow yourself. If we get out of the range of your memory, we'll just get lost in a dense fog since you don't know what occurred anywhere else, since, well, you were where you were at the time of this memoury occurring." Orihime looked at him oddly. He took that as a "HUH?" and sighed heavily before dragging her to her memory's self.

"Oh, hmm," the Shinigami said. "Interesting. Not many people have very noteworthy memories at such a young age."

She was about five at the time. Her orange-red hair was barely at her shoulders, and she wore little asterisk, snowflake-like, blue clips in her hair that only failed to pull back her bangs which covered her big, shy eyes. She was currently sitting beneath a big, shady oak tree, listening patiently to a very exuberant—

"Tatsuki!" Orihime shouted in reminiscence. "Wow, how nostalgic!" she cried, breathing in the air. "It's exactly as I remember this place to be, at least before that tree was cut down," she sighed sadly.

The Shinigami walked forward. "Well, it should be. It's _your_ memory."

Orihime shrugged nonchalantly as she followed the Shinigami to look at the two children up close. Tatsuki seemed to be enthusiastically demonstrating the punches she had learned in a karate class she'd be taking, and Orihime watched encouragingly. Tatsuki began practicing her very proud roundhouse kick, when suddenly—

A flash of orange.

"_Get back here, you Chicken!" one of the boys that had ran through Orihime before screamed._

"_Come back here and face us like a man!!" cried the last, knocking Tatsuki over at her most vulnerable moment._

"_SHUT UP! Why don't you guys face me like a man then!?" the poor victim being chased yelled back at them._

_Swiftly and skillfully amidst running, he deftly grabbed a branch and swung in a loop, kicking one in the back of the head. Unfortunately, the act caused the other four bullies to catch up with him, corner him, and punch him to the ground. Blow after blow, the boy suffered as he tried all he could do to protect himself._

"_Why, you—JEEERRKKS!" a female voice screamed, and before the boy knew it, one of his antagonists was brutally knocked over. Before he knew it, the other remaining three boys had stopped tormenting him and turned around to meet their new oppressor._

_Tatsuki. And she was fuming. "You idiots! You knocked me down with all your rudeness! And you didn't even apologize! Didn't your mothers tell you you'll never get a girlfriend acting like such a butthead?! Huh!?" she yelled, angrily. However, her speech was wasted._

"_Ew! Who'd want a girlfriend anyways? They've got cooties! Especially if she's someone like you!"_

"_Why… you…" she growled menacingly._

_And within a second, she had completely annihilated them._

_She wiped her hands clean of all the crap that she had just dirtied her hand touching. "Tch. Teach them to mess with me again. Wimps." She scrunched his nose in disgust and left them for dead._

_Orihime, about ten feet away from the scene of the crime (for Tatsuki had warned her to stay back and try not to watch lest she cry… which she had wanted to out of fear), began to walk forward to coalesce with Tatsuki, when she inadvertently but unavoidably looked at the bodies of the bloodied, belligerent boys. "Ah—eh?" she chirruped curiously and so innocently for one who had just witnessed a child's blood bath. She stopped in her tracks._

_Tatsuki stopped and looked back at her. "What's wrong? Why'd you stop?" she asked the bright haired girl._

_Orihime blinked. "I think that boy… with the orange hair… is hurt."_

_Tatsuki grunted in satisfaction. "You bet he is. That'll teach them to mess with girls again, especially me. I just hope those wimps won't tell his mommy on me," Tatsuki growled, fist clenched._

_Orihime walked up close to the boy in question; Tatsuki reluctantly followed._

_"Eh?" Tatsuki said, stopping suddenly. "I think that boy's in my karate class. He's only a yellow belt though... Weird, I thought he was a major wimp, since the first time I beat him up, he went crying to his mom. Never expected him to pick a fight, five to one."_

_But Orihime wasn't listening. She gasped. "His nose is all bloody!" she cried, running up to him through all the bodies, him at the bottom (he was rather suffocating beneath the weight). Although not even five at the time, she gently caressed his face as she readied to wipe off his bloody nose with her skirt selflessly, that is, until—_

"_Ugh, Orihime! Don't use your skirt!" Tatsuki cried, disgusted. "Here," she said, throwing a shirt she had ripped off one of the unconscious boys still on the ground that hadn't awoken and run off for the lives. Orihime wiped his face and cleaned him up (whilst he was making repulsed faces at being treated with a nasty, sweaty shirt), whilst Tatsuki moved all of the bodies off of him._

"_Um… were you… being chased by them?" she asked. She never conversed with boys. Not even girls really, just Tatsuki. She usually didn't even start up coversations, preferring just to listen._

"_Yeah," the boy said gruffly, lazily, not even looking at her._

"_Um… why were you being chased?" she asked again. She had stopped wiping away the blood periodically, but started again as another drop began to flow._

"_Isn't it obvious?" he asked crudely, looking at her like she was stupid. He pointed to his hair, almost like a gun to his head. "No one likes my orange hair." He spoke slowly as if she were dumb. She flushed in embarrassment._

"_Well that's dumb," Tatsuki said bluntly._

_He shrugged. Despite the fact that Orihime was still trying to dress his wounds, once Tatsuki had moved the last body off of his lean frame, he immediately attempted to stan dup, wobbling slightly. "Thanks," he muttered monotonously, almost as a formality than actual gratefulness. Tatsuki scowled slightly at his rudeness, but Orihime didn't seem to heed it any mind._

"_B-but, you're still hurt!" Orihime cried as he limped a step. She immediately ran to his side as he began to lean sideways._

"_I'm—" he stumbled and fell slightly into her, "—fine."_

_But everyone obviously knew he wasn't since his body was now being almost completely supported by Orihime, one arm over her shoulder, and Orihime had now attempted to grab his other shoulder to stabilize him, causing her to not be able to move but get a clear shot of his face._

"_Look at you," she said softly. "You're not okay. C'mon, me and Tat—"_

"_I'm _fine_," he emphasized coldly, looking straight into her eyes. His direct glare scared her into numbness. The yellow-gold of his eyes seemed to not only glare daggers into her but pierce through her soul. Her breath hitched._

_He looked away and attempted to push himself off of her. She didn't attempt to help him again, although she ran up to him once as he stumbled slightly._

_Tatsuki scowled. "Tch. Just leave him alone, Orihime," she said, turning away to leave. "If he doesn't want our help, then we won't give it to him. It'll be his loss."_

_But Orihime simply stared as his flaming hair died out in the horizon._

The silence that engulfed the Shinigami and Orihime as her past self and Tatsuki walked away in the opposite direction (with little Orihime casting furtive glances back) was soon broken. The Shinigami coughed.

"So… his is an important event of your life, eh?" it asked awkwardly.

She blinked. "I dunno. I guess. You were the one that played it," she asked innocently.

"But it was your memoury."

"I guess," she shrugged.

"Okay, so, ready to go to the next event?" The Shinigami asked No action was going on and the atmosphere around them had began to haze up—a sure sign that her memoury wasn't as clear as it used to be due to its lack of importance to be remembered.

Orihime blinked. "Eh? Is this trip going to be long? I thought these flashbacks were only supposed to be small fragments of my memories…"

"… They are," it stated dully. "What, those thirteen minutes right there was your entire life? Psh."

She blinked. "But… like, you know how my life is supposed to flash right before I die when I_ suddenly _die?Well, if I _suddenly_ die, how am I supposed to watch thirteen minutes of my life, much less more? If I had so much time to watch my life, wouldn't I just prevent myself from getting killed in the first place?!" She was so utterly confused.

The Shinigami didn't look flustered in the least. "Well, under normal circumstances, yes. Because you have like less than ten seconds to die, we kind of got to cram all these memouries together, but since you're in a coma and we've got time to spare, why not just enjoy the ride?" She simply stared at it in confusion, for it reminded her awfully of a vacation salesman and damn, it was doing a pretty good job with that logic. It lowered its voice threateningly. "Look, P—perhaps you would like to die now, eh? At least this way, you get a couple of more moments to live."

Orihime's face settled in undeniable defeat. Somehow, she felt that the Death God was smirking beneath its hood.

"Alright, next stop!" it yelled barbarically, raising its sword. And in a flash, they were no more.


	3. The Introduction

**Love Flashed Right Before Your Eyes  
****Chapter III:** The Introduction

"_Hi, I'm Asano Keigo!! I like fun and skateboards and video games and other cool stuff! And I DON'T like girls, cooties, my sister, mean people, and listening to old people talk!" a little boy said, or rather screamed. When they landed, they appeared to be in a classroom full of little kids._

"_Um, thank you for sharing, Keigo-san," the teacher said trying to usher him to his seat. However, the boy just kept rambling on and on and it took until the teacher literally picked up the kid and sat him down until he stopped._

_The Shinigami and Orihime looked around the classroom. It appeared that a lot of the children in the previous memoury were also in this one. Orihime spotted herself in the seat she remembered sitting in practically all throughout her life, Tatsuki beside her. She spotted everyone in their younger forms, including…_

"_Class! Let's all listen to… Kurosaki Ichigo."_

_The little boy with orange hair that had been beaten up in the prior memoury came back up. Little Orihime gasped in surprise of seeing him, and figuring out his name. Needless to say, she had been thinking about the poor boy since._

"_I'm Kurosaki Ichigo," he said, in that cool voice that he had used before, only with a hint of "I-wouldn't-be-up-here-if-I-weren't-forced-to-be" in his voice. "I turn six on July 15. I have two baby sisters on the way. Things I likes are… my mommy, but she's too busy to play with me anymore… and I guess my dad. I also like strawberries. I dislike… idiots," he said bluntly, causing a few snickers amongst the class. He stood up there looking disgruntled for a few seconds before turning to the teacher and very monotonously said, "I'm done."_

_The teacher smiled encouragingly and began to awkward applause for him. "Thank you, Kurosaki-san… for sharing that… lovely introduction…"_

_The boy smoothly and coolly walked back to his seat and plopped down, aware of the class staring at him in a mixture of awe and/or disgust._

And then the class began to blur.

"Figures…" the Shinigami said. "You don't remember anything but the introductions, but when it comes to learning, you completely blank out. The fact that within ten minutes, the entire classroom covered in fog had turned black proved that (Orihime had fallen asleep amidst learning about the alphabet). She grinned innocently.

They sat around for approximately five more minutes, hoping that the darkness would disappear. Although the black background occasionally fuzzed to a grey (proving that she occasionally woke up), nothing of signifcance happened.

"Ahh! This is taking too long!!" the Shinigami cried, wanting to pull its imaginary hair out. Hastily and without a second thought of caring if the memory contained anything else of signifcance that day, it drew its sword and fast forwarded time, skipping to the next memoury.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Well, this chapter is really short. I wanted ot take it out since I wouldn't remember it myself if I were her, but if you just skip to the next memory, how did she find out Ichigo's name? How will anyone know how she met him after he left the park mysteriously? Oh, and I figured... he is a mama's boy, right? Well, that'd ruin his cool. So I figure he can be a whiny, wanna be strong boy that wants to grow up more than he is since 1, he's mad that he has to share his mom and his mom can't play with him anymore, and 2, because his parents told him that he has to be strong to take care of his little sisters. Plus, he still loves his mom but wants to act cool in front of everyone else.

Uggh, I had soo many mistakes in this, thank you but darn you wikipedia! I couldn't find his birthday and yahoo'd it at first and that gave me wrong info and wikipedia recently said it was the 15th! I figured it should be what with all his puns but if someone tells me otherwise, I'll say the thing stated, not my hunches.


	4. The First Kiss

**Love Flashed Right Before Your Eyes  
****Chapter IV:** The First Kiss

"Ahh! I remember this!" Orihime cried loudly. The Shinigami saved her the trouble of hearing the logical linguistics of that phrase and kept silent.

"_Tatsuki," the little Orihime, now seven, tugged on her friend's uniform. Her friend turned to her, still drinking her orange juice. "What's a kiss?" Orihime asked. Tatsuki choked._

"_W-what? Why are you asking me that, Orihime?!" she practically screamed, wiping her mouth of her saliva._

"_Well, Izumi-kun was talking about it and I was wondering what it was," she asked innocently._

_Tatsuki glared at Orihime, wanting to ask in what context Sano Izumi had used it, but avoided asking so. "You're too young to kiss right now, Orihime," she said, looking away. But that just wouldn't fly by._

"_But what is it?" she asked again. "I won't do it, I just wanna know what it is… so I won't do it. But I might do it since I don't know what to avoid doing," she said unconvincingly. But Tatsuki sighed. She really hated arguing with Orihime since Orihime could easily find it out from one of those retards in her class that were starting to develop childish crushes on her and try to coax her into kissing them._

"_Well… you know when your brother tucks you into bed? Or when he drops you off and he kinda does this weird pucker thing with his lips and touches his lips to your cheek? Well, that's a kiss," she said, awkwardly._

"_Oh, really?" she asked in a mixture of curiosity and disgust. "Why do people want to kiss then?" she asked, wrinkling her nose cutely. "He always gets spit on me and I have to wipe it away because it feels nasty," she squeaked in remembrance, putting her hand on her cheek where he always kissed her._

"_Because," Tatsuki explained, "It's a sign of affection."_

"_What's that mean?" she asked. She only had a seventh year old's vocabulary, if not lower._

"_It means… you really like them and you're really glad that person exists."_

"_Well, I know that my brother loves me," Orihime said smiling toothily. "He tells me everyday when I go to school. But it's not like I won't return that afternoon."_

_Tatsuki didn't want her friend to be ignorant yet she didn't want to break her innocence. She was caught in a Catch-22 and tried to handle the situation delicately. "Well… if… for some reason… something happened to you or something happened to him, then that way, that will be the last thing you remember about him… and you'll always know he loves you."_

_Orihime smiled softly and she made a mental note to give her brother a big kiss in return. "Then why is kissing such a bad thing then?" she asked, looking puppy-eyed at Tatsuki._

"_Well..." Gosh, this was not a conversation for Tatsuki to handle. She rather wished she had played ignorant and said something dumb like… kicking someone's shins. "Well… you see… kisses are supposed to be given to the opposite gender unless its your family. And they're supposed to be reserved for only the most special people so that your kisses will be special too."_

_Orihime seemed to accept that answer and grinned happily, skipping all the way to the corner of the sidewalk, wherein Tatsuki and Orihime went their separate ways—Tatsuki to martial arts, and Orihime back home to wait for her brother._

_She skipped merrily along her way, passing by the park that she had first seen Ichigo. She hadn't quite returned since, for her brother wouldn't let her go alone after that one time she had told him what had happened with Ichigo, and Tatsuki was always too busy with martial arts lessons to go with her after school before it got dark. But… whenever she passed by the park, she would always hope unexplainably for Ichigo to be there… even though she always saw him at school… for some odd reason, she liked the feeling of just seeing him, even though she never talked to him besides the occasionally working together in groups. The park was the only connection she had to seeing him besides in school… So, since her brother wouldn't get home until sunset anyways, and she was now older, she figured it wouldn't be so bad to just… take a quick peek…_

_Immediately, she went to the tree she had first seen him at. But no one as there save a few preschoolers and their mothers. No one seemed to be there at the park She sighed softly and decided to go pick some flowers for her brother for when he got home. She kneeled down to pick up a flourishing white daisy, when suddenly—PLAT! Her face fell into the flower. She began to sneeze a fit of pollen._

"_Tch, watch where you're going!" a girl cried, probably the one who had accidentally pushed her over._

"_It can't be helped—her hair practically blinds anyone that stares too directly into it," said one catty girl._

_Orihime simply ignored them though and deftly apologized for a deed she did not do. But she didn't understand what they were so mad about and just simply decided to quickly move out of their way. They didn't plan that though._

"_Hey! Don't walk away from us! Who do you think you are? Just because you have weird coloured hair doesn't give you the right to do whatever you want," they said, confusing Orihime. She didn't understand what was going on, and ignorantly apologized again. They ignored that._

_And before she knew it, she had been shoved on the floor again, face eating grass. And then kicked. Again, and again and again._

"_Oh look, her panties are showing!" Another catty call._

"_How indecent! She's disgusting."_

"_Maybe if her hair wasn't so ugly and stupid, she won't be either," one said._

_And so they pushed her into the lake, hoping the dirt and polluted water would stain its purity._

"_Ugh," a girl faked gagging noises. "It still looks like crap," she said, despite the irony that crap was actually in her hair._

"_Let's cut it. Then we don't have to be forced to look at it anymore."_

_And, pulling out a pair of safety scissors from their schoolbags, they ascended. Two girls grabbed her arms, one sat on her legs. The rest watched as the leader took her bright red locks and a _snip_ was heard… and her red locks intermingled like blood in the water._

_Orihime, the poor girl, didn't understand anything that was going on. Everything was swirling (as shown in the fuzzy quality of the memoury), and she didn't even know these girls! Why were they so mad at her? She was in class 2-A; they were in class 2-B. She had only seen them once. Not only that, but she was just picking flowers! Were they their flowers? Did she accidentally do something that made them mad? She was awfully sorry and apologized repeatedly to no good._

_She struggled desperately but to no avail. How was one small girl—third smallest in her class to be specific—supposed to fend against five? Not to mention the fact that with Tatsuki around and her brother to teach her love and pacifism, how was she supposed to even know how to fight back?_

_She was too tired to struggle and it seemed like these girls would win in the end anyways. No one was coming to save her, no one would even know what was happening in the shallow depression of the lake. She couldn't even scream with one girl covering her mouth—not that she could anyways, for fear and reticence. She was helpless, hopeless, confused, hurt, and above all… upset. Upset not because of the normal reasons of being bullied or her hair getting cut or something trivial and inane and childish… rather… she was upset because they had just cut off the one thing that made her feel unique, different… and connected… to Ichigo._

_And so she began to cry._

"_Oh look, we've made her cry," one said in mock concern._

_But Orihime didn't care. She didn't want to show them they had made her cry, but she couldn't help it. She wanted Tatsuki here… she wanted her brother here… she wondered if this was what Tatsuki meant by "something happening to her"… and her heart sunk in sadness upon realizing that she hadn't even yet told her brother she loved him._

_Suddenly, she heard a splash. She peaked through the gaps for her fingers covering her face wanting to know what it was but afraid to be exposed, to feel indecent again. She expected to get hurt again… but she only found a hand, outstretched to get reached._

"_Are you okay?" a voice asked. And who would save her from catty girls jealous of Orihime's beautiful locks than someone who can share her pain? Or she could share his…_

_When she saw him… she felt even more ashamed. For him to have to save her… for him to have to see her so beaten up… for him to have to see her looking so ugly… to see her with her hair nonexistent, her clothes muddied, her eyes red, crying and crying and unable to stop… she hid her face in her petite hands further and just cried some more. She couldn't stop._

"_O-oy…" he said awkwardly. A once-only child now with two sisters that always cried (well, one anyways), he didn't really think any of that experience pertained to him. When Yuzu cried at home, he rolled his eyes and called his mom—he didn't think that would cut it this time. "O-oy," he repeat, tapping her on the shoulder, his masculine and heroic air lost. He figured the way his father kicked him to stop crying and act like a man wouldn't work on girls either, Ichigo thought._

_He put his hand on her shoulder. He tried to speak in the soft voice his mother used on him and always, against his will mind you, tamed him. "H-hey… I-Inuoe…" That was the first time he had said her name and oddly her heartbeat quelled, uncontrollable hiccupping soothed. "D-don't cry… okay?" She sniffled slightly but did not yet remove her hands from her surely red and blotchy face. "D-don't cry… those girls aren't worth it. Anyone who makes you cry aren't worth your tears… or something…" he finished awkwardly, blushing. She had gotten even calmer, but Ichigo's face hadn't. he looked away embarrassedly, feeling feminine at saying should mushy things._

_His lips quivered in fear or what next to do if Orihime wouldn't get up, for he had run out of girly stuff to say. He looked around awkward and bent down to Orihime's level. She sniffed only slightly, for her nose was now runny, but she didn't want him to see her, to see her look so pathetic._

"_Ne… come on…" he said softly, barely a few inches from her. He put his hands gently over hers and delicately guided them away from her face, which surprisingly easily. When the light hit her eyes, she immediately turned away, under the premise that if she couldn't see him, he couldn't see her. But, of course, he did, but he didn't say anything about it. He just took one of her soft hands in his calloused ones and guided her out of the lake._

_She had noticed that his pants had gotten wet in the scuffle; the other girls had been pushed into the lake in self-defense, or Ichigo called it that anyways. He told her this as he gently dragged her to his mother, who had claimed it was such a beautiful day that she brought his two sisters and himself out (she had actually knew Ichigo was getting cooped up with taking care of his sisters)._

_However, what he didn't tell her was that he had overheard a few boys in class 2-B talking about how pretty she was; he had actually beaten them up under the disposition that they were jerks, somehow… and that would be hard to explain. He assumed the girls that had tried to take out their anger on Orihime's hair liked the jerkish boys he had beaten up in the bathroom that day… which he though insanely dumb, obvious by the look of disgust on his face. Instead, he told her that those girls were jealous fools that took their anger out on innocent bystanders than take responsibility for their own pathetic lives. Orihime didn't understand what he meant, which is what he had counted on, but she was ever so glad for him to be there._

_This was the closest she'd ever gotten to him, since that day when they first met. Despite his cold, gruff voice, trying to act strong, especially when he presented her to his mother (and she asked if she was his girlfriend), it was the kindest he ever had been to her, even more than that time he had to get her a card for White Day (their class was forced to participate). He had held her hand when getting out of the lake… and asked her if she was okay… and walked besides him to his house (his mother and two sisters were walking only a few paces behind them though)… and she had went to his house to get cleaned up (although it was his mom that helped her most; she also helped trim Orihime's frayed ends to be presentable again)… and… she got to wear some of his clothes since hers were dirty. For some reason… she was unbearable happy._

_Ichigo's mother had asked her to stay with them for dinner, but she refused kindly, saying her brother was coming home soon and she didn't want him to worry. But as she went to the door to open it, Ichigo's mom stopped her short, refusing to let her leave on her own._

"_It's getting dark soon. You shouldn't walk home all alone, especially as a cute little girl at your age," she said._

"_But I only live around the corner," Orihime smiled gratefully. She tugged at the hem of Ichigo's big shirt and went all the way to her thighs._

"_But still. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I allowed you to do something like that." She smirked widely. "So Ichigo will walk you!" She practically shoved the poor unsuspecting boy into Orihime._

"_W-what?!" he practically spat as he balanced himself off of her. "W-what? Why can't you? What if something happens to me? I'm just as big as she is!" he said, fully aggravated at how she wouldn't let Orihime get stolen, hurt, raped, or whatever, yet she would readily send him._

"_You're a big boy, aren't you?" she pinched his cheeks teasingly. "I have to stay to make dinner and look out for your sisters, Ichigo." Ichigo grunted in compliance and roughly kicked off his shoes and unlocked the door to leave._

"_Wait, honey!" his mom cried, putting down her spatula, turning off the fire and running to him. She kissed him softly on the cheek, making him blush because Orihime was there witnessing it. He pretended like he didn't like it and walked out the door, but his mother only smiled at his embarrassment, and Orihime smiled too. Despite how he acted, she and everyone knew how much he loved his mother more than the world—she was the only one Ichigo's eyes softened for._

_They walked in silence, or he did anyways. She tried uncomfortably to make conversation._

"_Um… thank you… for saving me today," she said, bowing slightly._

"_You shouldn't have gotten hurt in the first place," he said coldly. But she ignored that._

"_But still, thank you for being there… and… um… sorry for borrowing one of your shirts…" Nothing. Shoot… ran out of conversations… General conversation starter, general conversation starter… "So… how was your day?"_

"_Fine, I guess," he said._

"_D-did… you have fun at recess today?"_

"_I guess."_

"_What'd you do?" she asked, pryingly._

"_Play soccer."_

"_That's fun."_

_He grunted._

_Okay, conversation over._

_Silence again…_

"_So… Kurosaki-kun…"_

_He grunted._

"_Do you… like someone?"_

_He stumbled. "What?" he more stated than asked. He looked at her in disbelief._

"_Do you like anyone?" she asked again. Her voice was absolutely seriously, but… coming from Orihime…he would have never thought someone so shy would be so direct._

_He looked forward, facing the road. He felt his face was rather warm for some odd reason and suddenly felt really self-conscious. He scoffed. "Psh… we're in the second grade. W-what do you mean if I like someone?"_

_She blinked. Crap, definitions were not her thing. She shrugged, "I don't know…"_

_He breathed a sigh of relief. "Then how can you ask me that without knowing what that means?" Not that he had anyone in mind anyways. It was just an awkward, gossipy, cornering question._

_She bit her lip. "I don't know… do you like your mom?"_

"_Well, of course," he said._

"_Do you like your sisters?"_

"_I guess."_

"_Do you like your teachers?"_

"_Not really."_

"_Do you like…" she bit her lip again, "… me?"_

"_W-what?" he stuttered. "I-I barely even know you."_

"_That's not my fault," she pouted. But he ignored that._

"_Then how am I supposed to know if I'd like you or not?" he asked commandingly._

"_I dunno. How do you know that you don't like teachers?" she asked._

"_They're naggy. And really annoying," he said._

"_Am I?" she asked._

"_Not really."_

"_Why do you like your mom?" she asked._

_Ichigo paused, thinking. "She's… nice… and pretty… and makes my lunch… and gave birth to me… and… I don't know!" he exclaimed, flustered._

_She blinked. "Am I those things?" she asked. She didn't even know what she seemed to be implying._

_He turned away, his face unbearably hot. "I don't know!" he cried. "I guess…"_

_She was unsatisfied but she didn't even know what she was talking about. She didn't understand that the "like" she was implying was of a romantic origin. She didn't understand why he was so flustered and why she herself was so hung up on the subject… maybe it was the fact that she had overheard a classmate telling another that she liked Mizuiro… or the fact that that girl who had bullied her did it for the sake of someone she liked… or maybe it was because she wanted Ichigo to feel that way about her… or maybe it was because she felt she did feel that way about him._

_They walked in silence for the rest of the way. It didn't take very long, for her house was only a few streets away, taking only about five minutes walking. He walked her up to her door in order to ensure she could get in. When she opened the door (her brother wasn't home yet), he turned to leave, when she suddenly spoke up._

"_Aren't you going to ask me who I like?" Orihime asked shyly, sneaking furtive glances at him. She bit her lip, despite the fact she was the one who asked him._

_He looked away and grunted to say he didn't care, narrowing his eyes, wishing she would stop asking these uncomfortable questions. He would learn later in his life that she was never one to know what was to be avoided in unwritten tacit laws._

_She smiled softly. "Tatsuki said that when you kiss someone else, it means you like them very much, and that you're really, really, glad that they're alive. So, I guess that that's what it means to like someone, so… um… thank you very much, Kurosaki-kun, for saving me back there." She bowed. "When I saw your hand, I was very relieved and thankful… but when I saw that it was Kurosaki-kun… I was very happy, not because you had helped me but because it was Kurosaki-kun helping me… and so… anyways…" she blushed, fiddling with her fingers and the hem of Ichigo's shirt. She didn't know what she was feeling and he didn't understand what she was saying; but gently, against the glow of the setting sun, the little girl stepped closer to him, him not moving back, and got on her very tippy-toes… and kissed him._

_It was only on the cheek, and it was only for a second—but it was a kiss, nonetheless. When Orihime planted her feet back on the ground, she looked directly into Ichigo's eyes, knowing full well she was blushing but not minding it in the least. Ichigo, on the other hand, looked away abashedly, the way he did when his mother kissed him. He didn't want to show her how much she affected him._

"_There! Just in case… some thing happens to one of us…" she said sadly, "… you'll at least know that you're cared for and it will be the last thing you remember me by."_

_Ichigo's face returned back to its indignant nature. "Are you implying something's going to happen to me in the next five minutes in returning home?" he asked dully. But she just grinned happily, her cheeks red, but unable and unwilling to wipe off any of it._

_She didn't tell him that that was her first kiss—just like he didn't tell her he tried to wipe off the imaginary residue from his cheek when he became self-conscious of cooties. Ichigo also didn't bother to tell her that her definition of "like" was wrong, lest she incur another awkward conversation and explain things that guys were never meant to explain. But it was a very special moment for her._

As she walked inside and Ichigo said, or rather grunted, a monotone "bye," the Shinigami turned to find Orihime blushing to the red roots of her hair.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

She looked away innocently. "Ahh! How embarrassing! I was sure stupid when I was little!" she laughed, knocking herself in the head. But she was still smiling. Regardless of how idiotic she felt knowing she had been so oblivious in the past, she treasured that moment very much.

"Oy," the Shinigami said, waving its hand in front of her face to knock her out of her reverie. "Are all your memouries about that boy or something?" it asked grimly.

She blushed again, heavily, and shook her head furiously. "Shut up! This moment was very special to me! N-not because of Kurosaki-kun, but-but… because… it was my f-first kiss! Jeez, did you not have a first kiss? Because if you did, you would obviously know the importance of said kiss!" she rambled heatedly, looking away.

"Fine," it said aloofly, turning a cold shoulder. "If he'snot that important to you, I guess you don't want to know a little secret pertaining to this moment…" he dangled, his voice dripping with enough sugar to cause even Orihime to wince.

"Whaaaat?" she asked, her voice trying not to betray her curiosity, but she obviously failed.

"Well… after this interesting little incident, that boy went to talk to that short black and short haired, butt-kicking girl and told her to make sure to always be there to protect you… at least in a few words anyways… just in case something like these would happen again. He was also very upset to find out he hadn't been there in time to save your hair—so he wanted to make sure it wouldn't ever happen again…"

Orihime was silent. She hated the fact that it was telling her things that made her… feel certain things about him again… yet… she couldn't help it… because she felt that way about him.

"And it didn't help that when you came out of the bathroom when his mother but your hair, your face looked like you were about to cry again," the Shinigami said coldly.

Orihime scrunched her face up in an apology, although she had no reason to apologize to the Shinigami. But she looked up in confusion.

"How do you know all this?" she asked. Absolutely no suspicion… just plain curiosity and confusion.

"Yo, Professor… explain how I _can't_ know all this stuff if I have the freaking amazing power to change time? Eh?" He got her there.

She accepted his answer unconditionally and wondered what else he knew. She wondered if he knew that she had grown her hair long in honour and as a symbol of Tatsuki always being there to protect her—protection that she now realized to be Ichigo's doing. She wondered if the Shinigami knew… that the other reason she grew her hair long was due to her increasing pride of the one thing that she and Ichigo shared—no one else. She wondered what else the Shinigami knew about her… about him… especially about him. But she knew the answers would only hurt her, so she refused to ask them lest she heard the answers.

"Oh, and by the way…" the Shinigami said darkly, voice lowering, "I did too have a kiss before," it said almost threateningly, domineering. "But girls just fawn over me so much, a kiss means absolutely nothing anymore," he sighed conceitedly, putting its arms above its head. "But anyways, even if one's first kiss does happen to be special to them, that didn't explain the fact that your second memoury had him in it too," he said coldly.

Orihime glared heatedly at the Shinigami. She looked away, arms cross, nose upturned. "He's one of my best friends. Jeez, is that a crime!?" she asked angrily.

It stared at her in disbelief. "Then what about that Tatsuki girl?" it asked in a know-it-all manner.

"Shut up," she cried, stomping away. "Let's go," she said huffily, arms and legs raised in an extravagant marching fashion.

The Shinigami blinked (or one would suppose it did). "Oy…hey… wait, where you going?" the Shinigami asked/yelled confusedly.

And, too lazy to chase her, it threw open it katana—and amidst the flashing light were scurrying footsteps running back to the source, afraid to be left behind.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Sorry... I added a few things to this chapter after rereading Orihime's wikipedia profile. Silly me! K_nocks head._ Of course cutting her hair would be the obvious choice. I mean, if there's a lake, I would push someone I hated too, but scissors makes sense for hating hair. Yes, yes. Anyways... I was so happy reading my four reviews from teh same person, I felt like writing chapter 5 right then but instead I changed 4. --' But I'll write 5 too. during class, instead of listening, I write cute moments. Haha.


	5. The First Suit & Tie Occasion

**Love Flashed Right Before Your Eyes  
****Chapter V:** The First Suit-&-Tie Occasion

The one thing that happened that year, the only thing of importance, of course, was him… or lack thereof him.

When Orihime and the Shinigami arrived, only one thing seemed oddly amiss. Little Orihime, now a couple of years older… was not asleep in class. Mind you, she wasn't quite learning. Well, at the moment, it was lunch, but… she was not eating. That was… just wrong.

"Ahh!" the modern-day Orihime cried. "She's wasting food! Lunch is almost over, and she hasn't even touched the natto! That's my favourite!!" She ran over to the little girl's desk and tried frantically to steal away the bean paste but to no avail. "Ahh!" she cried, as the girl's lunch was thrown away, lunch over. "Why, oh bean paste?! Don't you love me?" she cried. Come to think of it, she hadn't eaten since she had died, maybe even a day beforehand.

But Little Orihime wasn't as concerned about her food as modern Orihime (she had to do taxes and budgeting now). When class started and Uryuu Ishida and Sado Yasutora went to the board to teach the class fractions, unlike falling asleep, she just sat there, hand on her chin.

It wasn't that Orihime had never daydreamed before… in fact, she usually always did. But Tatsuki had observed over the years that Orihime's daydreams were usually happy and obnoxiously impossibly bubbly, and so Orihime usually either had a completely zoned out look with a smile and occasionally drool, or was asleep dreaming and kicked around or acted her dreams. Today, she looked like her soul had been stolen, and there was nothing at all happy about it.

Today, she just sat at her desk, no sign of sleep, no sign of anything. Today, she just sat there, her chin in her hand, eyes unblinking except when her body forced her to, and staring at an empty desk.

Ichigo wasn't here today.

But, the thing of the matter was, under normal circumstances, Orihime would still smile when Ichigo wasn't there. She often gave the façade of happiness even when she didn't actually feel happy, because she wanted people to be happy. She usually still slept and only inconspicuously looked at his desk occasionally from the corner of her eye, and slyly bringing up conversation starters of "Hmm, I wonder where Kurosaki-kun is…" and let others to say anything if they knew but only subtly enough so no one knew she really cared. Today, all her usual patterns broke.

Of course, no one noticed it but Tatsuki, her best friend. Why should anyone even suspect it? Well, everyone knew that Orihime had taken a rather liking to Ichigo: whenever Ichigo felt the need to be emo and not talk to anyone and just hang out by himself, Orihime felt the need to drag Tatsuki and ignore his needs for the same of discourage the environment of serial killers and make him play with the other boys in class. By the end of their third grade year, Asano Keigo had officially declared Ichigo a part of his posse (whether Ichigo liked it or not, which he didn't). But no one found this constant concern for Ichigo's welfare such a big deal—for if they ever questioned it, she easily wrote it off as the class president ensuring even the most unlovable to be loved (Ichigo also found offense to that). She herself hung out with Tatsuki and everyone, so it was no big deal. Everyone just thought she was a friendly, happy person; he a secluded hermit that wouldn't let anyone in… except maybe… hopefully, she thought… her. But she saw so much more in him than the rough scars and furrowed eyebrows trying to seem tough; she saw the innocence behind his eyes… she wondered if it would still be there.

But today… he was missing. Today… she was, in a sense, missing too. She was missing him. He was too busy missing someone else.

It was his fourth day absent this week.

The second day he went missing, Orihime had dragged Tatsuki along under the guise of checking up on the wellbeing of one of the citizens of her country. No one answered the door. But she heard the cries of a little girl shrieking for her life—"Where's mommy? I want mommy!" "Mommy's not here right now—but daddy and big brother are here…" said a desperately strained and tired voice. Her sobs were still loud and lonely in the silence, only calming and disappearing amidst footsteps and a slam.

Regardless of if he was there or not, she figured now wasn't the time.

When class was dismissed, the Shinigami realized what was going on; what Orihime had known all along._ Most of the students got up to hurried pack their things, meeting up with their friends to walk home together and gossip about the latest news; but for the gossip-starved students of seven hours, they were whispering rather ominously for being freed form their shackles. Orihime, who usually stuffed the one book she took out of her backpack for show and ushered Tatsuki to hurry up, took an unusually slow time to even realize that class was over. Tatsuki had already packed up all her things and had to shake Orihime gently for her to wake out of her reverie._

"_Orihime. Orihime," she said, her hand on her shoulder. Her voice was unusually gentle for a feminist tomboy, even for speaking to her best friend. "Hey… Orihime… you want to…?" Her eyes were strained, and despite her tough appearance, Orihime knew she was incredibly worried and upset. This was too young to have been visited by such a pain, for such innocence to be taken away. Orihime nodded, not even caring if she was catching her drift, already forming her own opinions of what Tatsuki had meant—there could have only been one thing._

_They had stopped by Tatsuki's house to retrieve a gift her mother had prepared. Orihime wished she could do the same, but her brother was not home and nothing of her own was worth very much value; instead, she brought her stuffed animal lion, a silly little thing but worn through her love. She knew it was do little if not nothing, but she couldn't, just couldn't, face him alone._

_They stood at the front door for a full five minutes, not wanting to ring the doorbell, but almost as if expecting someone to come on their own. Finally, Tatsuki did so, and they stood stock still, rigid as statues or deer in headlights as a little girl with black hair opened the door._

"_Yes? Hello?" she seemed to say. Her voice was oddly calm and even for a girl that should have barely been able to talk (Orihime would have pointed that out had this not been an inappropriate time)._

"_H-hello!" Orihime cried frantically as if speaking to someone of relative importance, whereas Tatsuki calmly greeted the child._

"_Do you want something?" the toddler asked steadily, almost… darkly. She looked awfully irritated and annoyed, surely wanting to slam the door on the girl that seemed to be wasting her time._

"_U-um…" Orihime mumbled nervously._

"_Is Ichi—" Tatsuki started, but was interrupted._

"_Karin! How many times have I told you to come get me when someone's at the door, and not do it yourself!" cried a man, black hair, obviously the girl's father. He was trying to calm another girl, the polar opposite of the black-haired one, who was crying frantically. "S-sorry about that," he said to Orihime and Tatsuki, barely glancing at them. "Um, please—come in," he said, before running off upon hearing something boil over. The girl called Karin stayed to glare at the two girls as they entered, took off their shoes, and even when they closed their doors. Tatsuki didn't like her too well, but Orihime saw a huge family resemblance in her behavior to Ichigo and even Tatsuki herself._

_They sat on the couch, awkwardly, listening to the sounds of the busy household and accompanied by a very fussy and mature three year old. Whilst Tatsuki and Karin seemed to have a staring contest, Orihime seemed to be giving glimpses at the hall, where she supposed Ichigo's room was. Where was he? Why wasn't he coming out?_

"_Sorry about that," she the man, coming back was a slightly heavy breathing girl. She held his head gingerly and was wiping her eyes, her nose red. But upon seeing Karin, she immediately released him and ran to her sister, who hastily called her a crybaby, yet the sensitive light-haired girl took no offense and even smiled._

"_We're… sort of busy at the moment," he said, trying not to seem rude but it was unavoidable. Tatsuki and Orihime nodded._

"_We're sorry," they bowed, "We won't stay long. We just came to give you something my mom sent over and…" Tatsuki and Orihime looked in the hallway quickly, "… to check if Ichigo's all right."_

"_Oh!" he said, taking the foiled covered plastic container from Tatsuki. "Thank you very much!" he smiled, though it seemed very worn. It seemed he smiled more than he felt._

"_Um, I'm sorry, but my brother isn't home and we haven't really had time to make anything so… um…" she clutched her lion. "I know Kurosaki—I mean, Ichigo had two younger sisters, so I brought one of my old, favourite stuffed animals…" She had just realized she'd feel really stupid if they didn't want it._

"_Oh, thank you very much!" he said in gratitude. "It was very thoughtful." The black haired girl looked very uninterested, as her father knew only too well; but the light brown-haired girl's eyes lit up happily, eventually smiling widely when her father let her have it._

"_Thank you, pretty sister!!" she said happily and politely, before running off to dance with "Bostov."_

"_Now," the father sighed, trying to relax his stuff back on the couch in the only two minutes wherein he could have some sort of rest, "… about Ichigo." He looked in the hallway that the two girls had been staring at the entire time. "I don't know if Ichigo is ready to come out of his room yet. He's really upset. He hasn't come out of his room since… y'know, his mother died…" Orihime and Tatsuki bowed their heads in respect and murmured apologies. "It's been really hard on him, especially since he was there to witness it, and he was really close to her." He sighed in the most worn manner, releasing the most… worried, stressed, depressing, anguished of emotions. "I've been in to talk to him, but the stupid little kid just said he was fine and just wanted to be alone." He said this somewhat proudly, somewhat sadly. He knew very well that Ichigo was lying, but he didn't know how to cheer up Ichigo the way only a mother could… the way Ichigo's mother could. "Do you… want to go see if you can cheer him up?"_

_But Tatsuki and Orihime, looking at each other simultaneously, shook theirs heads slowly and sadly. Unwilling and afraid to see him, for once in her life, Orihime let him be alone. At their age, despite their natural feminine nurturing capabilities, they knew naught how to handle death and knew naught how to handle him and tell it was it was okay when obvious it was not. She wanted to be with him; she wanted to be able to make him smile now more than ever, and ever she wanted that… but she knew in the sensitive state he was in, she would and could do nothing, if not make it worse._

_So she left. She and Tatsuki thanked and apologized to Ichigo's father deeply. When he asked if they should want him to tell Ichigo they stopped by, Orihime shook her head softly—it'd be more troublesome than not for him to feel the awkwardness of them having been there in the worst time of his life. Ichigo didn't actually ever find out that the stuffed animal that Yuzu grew up loving and treasuring was a gift from Orihime._

_Orihime went home afterwards, Tatsuki having to leave her for martial arts. As the Kurosaki home disappeared behind them, Orihime looked back one last time, catching a glimpse of orange—but she looked away immediately. She didn't know if he was crying, if he was doing homework, if he was sleeping or what he was doing, cooped up in his room for so long, but she was afraid to know. She didn't want to see him right now, she didn't want to see him upset, crying, a mess. She didn't want to see him broken, his ever-so valued pride gone. She felt seeing him as such should and would be a sin._

_As the sun fell beyond the horizon and the sky began to taint with darkness, Orihime simply laid on her bed, thinking of him, thinking of if he'd be okay. She didn't eat the whole not and barely replied with a lingering cracking voice, "Welcome home…" when her brother arrived; at least once she began talking to herself in the small cozy room, maybe hoping that Ichigo's mother's spirit would hear her, praying for her to somehow save her child from this pain. Despite her own inexperience with a mother, she knew Ichigo loved his more than anything in the world, and would and did anything for her to be happy. His mother was the reason he came to school every morning, to rush home every afternoon. She was the reason for the initial jealousy of his sisters, and the eventual concern and love of them. She was the one thing that made him smile despite himself, the one person he loved and could never live without… She was the reason for the light, the smile, the innocence in Ichigo's eyes, the eyes Orihime loved to stare into… now with her gone, would it die away too?_

_She wondered what he was doing now, how he could get over it, whether he would even come back to school again when nothing could ever be the same. She felt so weak and helpless for the person she knew for whatever odd reason that she wanted to help, wanted to make smile, she could not even comfort him the least when he's in pain the most. She felt pathetic._

Orihime remembered that Ichigo didn't come to school for the next two weeks. The following weekend was the funeral… and the weekend after would be Ichigo's birthday. _Orihime and Tatsuki_, and the Shinigami and future Orihime, _attended the funeral, Orihime only having met his mother on a shallow basis, yet enough to know how much she meant to Ichigo's family. Only Yuzu seemed to openly and loudly cry for her lost mother; the rest just stared at the coffin in disbelief. Karin's resemblance to Ichigo at that moment was almost identical: her eyebrows were furrowed in the way his always were at school. She almost looked mad, mad at her mother for leaving, mad at everything and everyone but not knowing at whom to direct her anger. She looked mad… because she was afraid to be sad. Over the past few weeks, she had transitioned to be a better mother figure for her sister. Ichigo's father looked the calmest yet the most… utterly destroyed of all, with Ichigo in a close second. Ichigo's eyebrows were half furrowed, as if disbelieving, daring someone to wake him up from this nightmare. It was the first time Orihime saw him in a suit. And it was the first and closest time she had ever came to seeing him cry._

* * *

**Author's Note**: Squees. Ahh, people story alerted me! What, no one liked Naruto or Harry Potter at the time I posted parts of it? Well, it's still very little compared to others but still, it… shouldn't be about comparing. HAHA! I also figured out I was using the wrong name for Asano… my bad. I remembered the Sano part and I had watched/read Hana-Kimi so Sano Izumi kinda ran. It's really catchy actually. So, yeah, found out a lot of problems, had to fix them and report it like five katrillion times. I hate it more than anyone else hates the emails. I think I'm not that good at very long projects. Like I have good ideas, but I don't like putting them out and spending the meat making it... that's why I don't wanna be a programer. Gah, I can't wait till the end of this story, it'll be more interesting when there's actual romance and sensaionalism drama than sad life drama.


	6. The Dimming Of Stars

**Love Flashed Right Before Your Eyes  
****Chapter VI:** The Dimming of Stars

_When he had came back to school—_Orihime remembered_—to her, nothing was the same. Only Asano tried to maintain his chipper attitude, the one wherein she wondered if he_ really_ felt so happy all the time or simply just wanted to lighten everyone's else's weight. She tried to act normal, or be the bubbly girl that always seemed to refuse his loneliness… but she was now lonelier than ever. She was always in a daze, thinking about who knew what, and so she remembered nothing. The only thing she remembered was the first time he came into class after his absence, for all she could do was stare. Half the class didn't know whether to avoid him, half didn't know to say hi. The thing that grabbed her most was the fact that, in its entire absurdity, he had actually said good morning _to her_, something he never did… but she was afraid to say hi back. It had almost seemed that in the few weeks he had been gone, all the newfound friendliness Ichigo had learned was lost, taking some of Orihime with her. In her battle to civilize him, he had won and she was suffering the injuries._

_For a decent while, their relationship took many steps back. Only shallowly talking, even after the tide fell over, she didn't try to force her happiness on anyone, including herself. Since he had to go pick up his sisters from daycare, he didn't walk home with her and Tatsuki, so she didn't see him at all. She didn't sit next to him in class; she didn't force him to play with the rest of their classmates at recess; she sat by him at lunch, but she didn't talk to him, knowing full well he wouldn't talk to her unless she did._

_It was only until a month after his return, one day when they were both walking home in dead silence that they began to walk in the same direction again. They had both had cleaning duties that day, Tatsuki having run immediately off for karate, and his father taken care of Karin and Yuzu for Ichigo. They had walked over half the distance in dead, ominous silence, herself but a mere two steps in front of him. She had kept questioning herself to slow down for him or him to catch up, but in the end, both just continued at their pace, expecting the other to change their role if they cared. It was so quiet, they were almost listening to their own footsteps intently, waiting for the other to speak. It was like the silence made them, force a need for someone to speak to break the awkwardness. But Orihime knew talking to break the awkward silence would just lead to awkward talking, so she refused to say a word, choosing instead to keep her hair on end and drive herself mad._

_So he did._

"_Oy," he grunted. He knew she heard him. She thought she knew he said something, but on second though, she convinced herself she didn't know if he was talking to her or just coughing or something._

_But she stopped, just in case. She turned around, looking at him in confusion as he closed in their two step gap, but he didn't stop walking. He just kept looking ahead, walking forward. Did he say something to her? She supposed not._

_They walked for a few seconds, in continued silence, and he spoke again. Oh, so he _was_ speaking to her._

"_You haven't talked to me in awhile," he said bluntly. Her eyes widened slightly, browed furrowed slightly. She was surprised he had even cared enough about her to notice._

"_W-what are you talking about, Kurosaki-kun?" she laughed bogusly to shrug it off. "Just yesterday I asked, 'What day is it?' and you said, 'Wednesday.' And I was like, '… Oh.'"_

"_That's not talking," he said simply._

"_How is that not talking?" she did not sound all too convincing, not sounding convinced herself. "If we didn't talk, how did we communicate? I could have sworn I said it, because I don't like writing and I would avoid writing notes if possible. Besides, I don't even sit near you except for lunch and why would I write a note at lunch? I don't even know sign language…" she rambled. He looked at her once to show his comprehension of her avoidance._

"_You know what I mean," he said sternly, simply. Just from the weight of his voice she dropped her smile, unable to support his seriousness. "You don't… bother me anymore." Orihime's eye's dropped, one eye almost twitching. Okay, thanks..._

"_W-what?! If I bother you so much, shouldn't you be glad I don't talk to you then?" she said, somewhat mock defensively, somewhat actually hurt._

_He didn't look at her, still facing the horizon. "It's not_… bothersome_." Wow, way to confuse the girl._

_But, either ignoring her miscomprehension or somewhat understanding and/or translating his inconsistent language, she shrugged. "I guess I don't, but… you don't talk to me either!" she defended; not actually attacking Ichigo as much as making herself not seem like the bad guy… with just a smidge of bitterness at his lack of concern for advancing their friendship… but just a smidge._

"_But… I never did," was his response. Damn, got her there._

_She looked down at the cement, subconsciously ensuring she wouldn't step on a crack. "I guess," she said, scrunching her nose in disgust at how it seemed like it was her fault and could only be her fault because she was the only one that did anything. She sighed "Well… I just figured… if you wanted to talk to me… you would..."_

"_You never cared before."_

"_Well… now I do, all right?!" she cried. She didn't understand the point of this conversation. Was he trying to connect with her or telling her that her life stopped revolving around him and now she has to go back to it or what? It was really rather great how he seemed to be pinning all this on her, not that she actually noticed. But at that time, or really anytime for Ichigo, for him in general, he was inept at expressing his emotions. This was the closest he could get, and yet that was still too far a cry from most of civilization, much less the very sensitive Orihime. "I figured… you might need alone time after…" it was implied what she meant without finishing it. Translation: she no longer knew how to act around him, how to act in these type of situations, never having felt this way herself. The only people she loved in her life were her brother, Tatsuki and maybe even… but none of them had died yet. She knew she'd be devastated, but she wouldn't know how she would actually be able to comprehend if anything ever happened to one of them._

_His eyes flickered slightly but no other noticeable change was visible. "I'm fine," he said, and he perfectly sounded it to the average human ear. She didn't know if she believed it—he had always tried to seem tougher than he was, especially when it came to his reputation or the sake of others._

_She turned to look at him. "… Are you?" she asked suspiciously, worriedly._

"_Yeah…" He said this unemotionally, like nothing. She didn't understand how one could be "fine" after a death, especially of someone you loved more than the world itself, especially when your eyes betrayed everything, as his did, and especially after the bright colour of his eyes had darkened. Whatever innocence that remained in the eyes of the boy who constantly lived on the side of "me and mom" against "them" had vanished as the war of life just became "them" against "me."_

_He could tell that she wasn't satisfied by the apprehensive and doubtful face she gave him. He faced forward in an attempt to not have to look into her big, almost watery eyes whilst talking about his recently deceased mother, lest... she catalyze certain emotions. "I… miss her, I can't deny that. But it's not like I can bring her back by mourning for her… she wouldn't be happy about that…" his voice was strained. She wondered if he really believed what he said. He couldn't deny that just thinking about her, his heart felt like it was being strangled and he had to blink excessively._

_They paused, having reached Orihime's house. Both having avoided talking to the other most of the walk home, they had not gotten to say to the other what they had wanted to—things that they had contemplating saying the entire month of silence all along. So, at her door, he summed it in a few words._

"_Anyways… I'm fine… so you should be too." He said this looking straight in her eyes. So he had noticed her._

"_How… how can you be fine?" she asked. "You're the one that should be being comforted, not me! You should be the one in pain, and I should be helping you! I don't get it… who are you trying to act brave for? Or do you really... just…just… how can you be fine?" she asked somberly, shaking her head._

_His eyes hardened, an attempt and involuntary bodily function prone only to Ichigo in order to prevent tears. He was silent for a second, walking to the rail, supporting himself against it. "… Of course I'm sad. Of course I miss her. And of course it hurts… but…" shit, harden your eyes, blink it away, "… But I can't dwell on it. _I_ still have to keep living. I have to stay strong for my sisters' sakes, and keep going to school, and keep on going, regardless if she's there or not. When she left…" he looked down, trying to hide it subtly by holding his head in his arms on the rail, "when she left… she… it's…" he struggled to find words, struggled to grasp at only one of the flurry emotions tormenting him. "It just… easier not to think about it. I can't think about her… If I have to keep going on, it's just… easier to forget."_

Orihime wondered… would that be the way he thought about her? About her own death? Just forget her? Would he even care? She couldn't imagine him upset, for her nonetheless, her heart ached. She knew in her brain she didn't want him to stop living because she did, she knew he should just move on. But… in her heart… she wanted him to… what did she want him to do, she thought miserably. If she's dead, it doesn't matter anymore, now does it?

_She looked down sorrowfully. "I'm sorry…" she said. Neither he nor herself knew quite what she was sorry for: her outburst, his mother's death, her troublesomeness, or just… everything. She walked to beside him, but purposefully not looking into his eyes._

_He stood up straight, his height towering over her by at least a half a head, wherein she felt, again, like the one who needed to be protected by him, over and over. He flicked her forehead softly, playfully. "Don't be, idiot. It's not your fault."_

"_But… Kurosaki-kun," Orihime started softly, his hand still on her head, "Wouldn't your mother be sad? For you… to forget her?"_

_Ichigo shrugged, removing his hand. "I don't know… but if I remember, it'll hurt too much. And if I remember her, it'll just… bring back all the memouries… everything I loved about her, and everything I regret ever doing, saying… and both memouries would only serve to hurt me even more: because I love her, and because she's not here anymore for me to tell her that…"_

_Orihime looked at him wretchedly. She knew she didn't understand even half of his pain… the average person didn't even understand the pain he was going through… "But… no one wants to be forgotten," she said simply. "__**I**__ think the average mother loves their child more than the world. In fact, there was this drama I was watching the other day wherein she did give up her life!" Orihime exclaimed, matter-of-factly. "Anyways… I know, and I'm sure you do too and more than I do, that your mother loved you even more than that. So with all that love, how could she want you to be sad, especially because of her?" she smiled, almost nurturing. She was only repeating things her brother had told her when they had run away from home, only improvising and abridged for the occasion, but to Ichigo, she was… Anyways, Orihime continued._

"I _know you love your mother very much, more than the world too… so it'd be sad to just forget about her, or to simply feel sadness or regret when thinking of her, right?" she was speaking so innocently, yet from her heart too. As she spoke, she could feel these emotions swelling deep inside. "She knows you love her, whether you said it or not. She knows you love her and she loves you very much, so why should you be sad?"_

_He gave her a half-hearted smile. He put his hand on her head, almost like a dog getting a good pat on the head, but it was the closest sign of affection Ichigo would ever admit at the time, and even if you blackmailed him with it, he would deny it._

"_Thank you, Ori—_Inoue_." She didn't know if the skip in her heart was good or bad, like the crashing of a stimulant._

"_W-well…" he turned around to look at the sun, which was already falling to sleep. "I better hurry up and get home and help with dinner… bye, Inoue. And thanks," he said, looking her in the eyes, the way he always did. Despite the darkness of his eyes, she still felt the same ache in her heart. He turned to leave._

"_Ah! W—wait," she called out softly._

_He turned around, a questioning look on his face as she timidly walked over to him and kissed him on the cheek._

_He put his hand on the spot she had kissed him and looked at her oddly, but not in the "ew, what the freak" kind of way, but more simply… "why?" He didn't wipe off her spit like he did the first time she had tried this, bur he still stared at her dumbfounded, confused._

"_What was that for?" he asked. His voice and face had looked almost as if she had slapped him._

_She twiddled her toes, or she would have if she didn't have her shoes on. "Well… since your mom's gone… I figure you probably don't get kisses anymore…" Suddenly her eyes widened and an eyebrow furrowed. "Or _do you_?!" she cried in apprehension._

_He hit her lightly upside the head. "Don't be stupid." She smiled in the old way she did, the smile that he missed, though would obviously deny it. She didn't quite finish her explanation, but it was implied that she would give him all the love he ever needed. _

_Grateful (although he would ever deny it even twenty years later), he never told her that his sisters and dad still kissed him at night, despite strong protests against his dad's scratchy lips. He just simply flicked her on the forehead, called her an idiot and left._

**Author's Note: **So, what else is there to talk about? I ranted on flaws in the prior note. Mangaka write random stuff here... soo, I'm making a dead fish hat for my friend, it'll be awesome. The yarn is really cool but I'm like... ah_—_aww, the yarn's blue and it'd kinda make the fish blend in with the water. But the yarn is freaking amazing, it's like an angel fish or whatever the heck those fishes are with those shiny scales... yeah, that's about it.


	7. The Nickname

**Love Flashed Right Before Her Eyes  
****Chapter VII:** The Nickname

"_Kurosaki-kuun!!" Orihime sang. She hadn't aged much from the last memoury but Ichigo looked like he had grown a bit._

_Ichigo was laying on the grass underneath a shadowy tree, silently closing his eyes as if about to sleep (which was weird, since it was only lunch time). When he heard her chipper voice pierce his ears, he only barely cracked one eye open before closing it again, ignoring her._

_Ever since their heartfelt conversation awhile back, he had made more of an effort to befriend her and act more like himself. In the irony of it all, instead of becoming even more withdrawn, he attempted to blossom, at least for her, in appreciation that is. Indubitably, he didn't bloom after a night, and he never actually opened up more than she was the most closed, but he was friendlier… he acknowledged her existence anyways. To say it went unnoticed would be a complete lie, for everyone had noticed and wondered about why the orange-haired hermit decided to suddenly invite an orange-haired hummingbird into his shell. Tatsuki had noticed too, and asked Orihime about it after Ichigo had suddenly said hi to her. Orihime shrugged, confessing to not notice anything._

"_Kurosaki-kun… Kurosaki-kun…" she mewed softly, not having witnessed when he had opened his eye and thus believing he was actually asleep. "Kurosaki-kun… are you asleep?" She didn't realise the idiocy of calling his name if she wished not to wake him._

_When he didn't respond, no, she didn't simply walk away. She sat down beside him, her obento box in hand, and began eating, acting as if Ichigo was there to actually accompany her. "Itadakimasu!" she half yelled, half screamed, if that were even possible. Ichigo sneaked a glance again._

"Eh!?" the real Orihime cried out. "He really was awake?! How rude… It was so lonely just eating by myself!"

"Odd…" The Shinigami didn't turn to face her. "You didn't even ask why the memoury depicts that minute yet important detail when you clearly didn't witness it."

"Eh?" she exclaimed. "What? Oh… I guess… that's true!" she exclaimed. So she hadn't noticed that she was witnessing every event at a bird's eye view, when her memoury should have only remembered the feeling of experiencing the event, not seeing it as a witness. She mewed in reverence before quieting to remain watching.

The Shinigami took quick glances at her, expectantly. She obviously did not comply. "Aren't you…" it glanced at her but glanced but forward, "… aren't you…" another glance… "… aren't you going to ask why?"

"Why what?" she asked clueless.

"Why you're seeing your memouries in a different perspective than you actually remembered them…"

"Oh!" she exclaimed. A little slow there… "Oh! Right! Um… yeah, okay, sure." If you could see it, one eyebrow was lowered, one eye twitching in dealing with such an oblivious person.

"Nevermind," it sighed in resignation.

"No, wait! No, I really want to know!" she said.

"Know what?" the Shinigami asked, although it knew perfectly well. But it wanted to hear her say it.

"Know… um… what you wanted to say." Nice save.

"Which is?" Obviously it wasn't desperate in talking as much as in being heard.

"Oh, um…" short attention span, short attention span… "Um… you asked… why."

"Why what?" Damn.

"Why… um… why… why… Ichigo's awake?"

It imitated a buzzer sound. "Wrong." The Shinigami sighed and continued nonetheless. "Even though you obviously don't seem that interested in knowing the linguistics of my trade, I shall enlighten you anyways," it spoke coldly. "Because your soul cannot inhabit your prior self's body whilst there is a soul occupying it, and we can't remove the soul without altering the memoury, we are forced to view this memory form third person point of view. Even though you did not witness most of these events, the Shinigami Research Institute can easily and quickly take your memouries and relay them through a different perspective."

"Wait… does that mean they can alter them too?" she asked quizzically.

"Well, technically, yes, but they are forbidden to do so. Well… actually, not exactly forbidden as much as the fact that altering a memoury would screw up the sequence, taking time off of more important projects, and there's not much in it for them. By altering a memoury, they would have to change the entire thing, not jut a part, for if it doesn't logically flow, then the patient will… well, die."

"All just for that?!" she cried hysterically, eyes wide open. She was afraid of the scientists getting bored and tampering with her mind.

"Well, or they wake up. Y'know, whatever…" the Shinigami shrugged off, uninterested. "But usually, when we flash people's lives before their eyes, it lasts barely a moment, so usually the Research Institute doesn't have to alter the memouries, for the human's thought processes won't be able to process at that speed and interrupt the memory reel. Only in special cases wherein the victim is in a coma and the flashbacks are relatively long enough do they have to do this, because they can't relive their lives without disturbing their prior self's body or logic. When it flashes, they aren't there long enough to alter the memoury. Besides, if you were in your prior self's body throughout these long scenes, we wouldn't be able to communicate with you… at this slow of a speed, you need a guide."

"Then why will fog and smoke occur when I sleep and slash or lose consciousness? And we can't witness things that my body didn't see?" Orihime asked. For not even knowing the question, she was a sharp shooter.

The Shinigami put its arms behind its head. "It's not our fault you chadn't seen things such as him being asleep before, when you were alive. You should have seen these things, but to trespass on others' memouries and things you weren't there for isn't in your jurisdiction. Besides, as we replay your memouries, you're to view an unbiased point of view, so this way you'll see the truth. Even though you were too naïve to realise he was awake then, doesn't mean he wasn't."

Orihime blinked. "Wait… why am I seeing this stuff again?" she asked capriciously.

"Well, number one, it wastes time. Number two, in sudden deaths, it's required for life to flash before your eyes. In elongated deaths, one usually would think of their past without provoking, and thus redeem their regrets without the need of a Shinigami. In sudden near-death moments, one must go through this experience so that they shall know what to change and fix in their lives before going. And the reason—"

"Wait," Orihime interrupted again. "So… does that mean I'm not dead?" she asked.

"You're in a coma, so in technical terms, no you're not dead," the Shinigami sighed.

"But… does that mean I'm going to die, or… do I get a second chance?" she asked, her eyes glowing.

The Shinigami's lids flickered, and it looked away. "Well… see… the thing is… in sudden death or sudden near-death moments, they're usually so sudden that you don't know where or not it'll kill you or just barely miss the mark, for even just a millisecond can alter that decision. _Technically_, only near-death flashbacks have been reported by your world because, well, only those with _near_-death moments have been able to report it, because, well, the others… are dead. It's usually just a technicality that we perform the flashbacks, because the Shinigami aren't the reason for your death, just the hosts to the other world... So in the event that you might survive in that millisecond, the flashbacks are administered… but often luck isn't on their side, and unfortunately…"

"So…" Orihime looked at it calmly. "… I _will_ die?" she asked—calmly, too calmly.

The Shinigami was silent. It turned away, looking at the young Orihime that was still sitting idly by the pretending Ichigo.

Orihime's eyes darkened slightly but nothing else was visible. "So… what's the point of you coming here then?" Her voice was serious. Her words were biting and straight to the point for someone so whimsical, without even meaning to. She just wanted to know. It's not like she had believed she would live, but the fact that there was even a glitter of hope… just… killed her.

"Well…it's a Shinigami's responsibility to make sure a soul leaves no regrets behind in this world. If you have a near-death experience, it's to warn them to fix their problems so when they do die, they won't be in trouble of turning into a Hollow, or a monster in laments terms. Slow deaths fix this trouble by themselves, as I said. With sudden deaths… obviously they can't do that… with sudden deaths, they figure your life is pretty much down hill from there and rather impossible or at least improbable that even if the person knew how to turn their life around, they wouldn't… so… they kill them, out of mercy… So instead of showing repressed memouries like we usually do… and another reason you're not witnessing this from the body which you experienced them is because… we show them… the truth of what's always bothered them in the hopes that they will forgive or hope for forgiveness and their mind can finally rest."

"But…" Orihime started, her tone obviously lackluster of the hope once in it for even just a millisecond, "How can I do that if I'm…"

"Well, in our terms, it's fine as long as the deceased can rest in peace. As for the living, their problem with forgiving or being forgiven or yearning to tell someone who's dead won't longer be a factor for why that person would linger upon that world and become a Hollow, since the person that they are conflicted with isn't even on that world any longer to haunt. Besides, in a sequential and cycle, once they die, we'll show them the truth too. But to fix these grievances whilst their living—albeit that we've received many complaints for causing humans such grief and fixing it only when it's too late—a technical problem the research department needs to look into—would be too much for a Shinigami to do and probably reduce the meaning of life for a human." It stated this matter-of-factually, almost giving the sense that Shinigami weren't here for human benefit but the balance of the world's. Orihime knew that this was how it should have been, but… still.

"_Hey! Kurosaki-kuun…" Orihime drawled. She still whispered for some incomprehensible reason. If she wanted to wake him—why whisper? "Kurosaki-kun. Kurosaki-kun…" she shook him gently. He didn't stir (although he was awake, but at the time he had actually started dozing off). She shook him again. No answer, except one loud snore, obviously over exaggerated. "Kurosaki-kun? Kurosaki-kun?!" her voice started to crescendo, tones of panic dabbling within her voice. "Kurosaki-kun, wake up!" She began slapping him lightly, then harder until it actually hurt._

"_Damn," Ichigo yelled, accusingly, eyes popping open so suddenly ina way impossible if he'd been really asleep. He held his cheek where it had become slightly red. Orihime didn't know her own strength, especially after Tatsuki had began giving her karate lessons on her own. "What?" he stated irately._

_Orihime sighed. "I thought you wouldn't wake up! Jeez, you're sure a heavy sleeper, Kurosaki-kun," she smiled. He didn't._

"_What did you wake me for?" he said stiffly. His eyebrows were furrowed, but they always were._

"_Lunch is almost over! You haven't eaten yet! I've already finished my lunch. Aren't you hungry? A growing boy needs to eat! If you want, I still have some red bean curd left…" She didn't want to tell him that what with eating all her food, she could no longer distract herself from wanting to play with him._

"_I'm not hungry," he said blandly. "Where's Tatsuki?" he more stated than asked. Usually Orihime and Tatsuki forced themselves to eat lunch with him, or he saw it that way anyways. He hadn't been alone with Orihime as often as with Tatsuki since, well, Tatsuki wasn't a shy young lady, and could easily and easily did hang out with the guys… and she took karate with him… so it was a rarity to be alone with Orihime, at lunch leastways. They always walked home together, rarely being joined with Tatsuki on the few days she didn't have karate, judo, aikido, or whatever, and Orihime still always kissed him goodbye on the cheek._

"_She's not here," Orihime answered lightly._

_He paused. She paused. They looked at each other for a good half a second. One could swear they heard crickets._

"… _Where is she?" Ichigo asked._

"_Oh, um…" Orihime racked her brains. "She went to Osaka for a tournament. She'll be back tomorrow evening though. I'm getting her homework for her, and taking notes for her, but I fell asleep last lesson and sort of… skipped a whole lesson, "she giggled guiltily. "I should borrow some notes from someone… and I hope she can read my handwriting, since I began doodling all over the edges…" Orihime always had a knack for either answering too much or too little than what was necessary._

_Ichigo looked around a second, observing the scene. When he deemed nothing that interesting, and what with Orihime not saying anything, he laid down once again, closing his eyes. Even though his gimmick was up, it wasn't like forcing yourself to stare at a straining-to-find-a-conversation person and thus creating more awkward tension, whilst at the same time confining yourself to a forced conversation was any better. At least by lying down, he could relax until she talked or something and when he replied, he wouldn't have to stare awkwardly at her and vise-versa._

"_Kurosaki-kun?" she asked timidly, thinking he was going to go back to sleep. Class would start soon anyways… "Kruosaki-kun, are you asleep?" she whispered again._

_Ichigo grunted._

"_Kurosaki-kun? Is that a yes? Y'know, class is going to start in just a little bit… Kurosaki-kun?" He didn't stir. Orihime bent her face over him, her shadow protecting him. "Kurosaki-kun?" _

_Suddenly, he opened an eye. She immediately flinched, startled. "You know," he started, still not making to lift his heavy head up. "You say my name an awful lot." It wasn't in a happy tone, she noted… but it wasn't really mad either—that was just how he talked. It was just a statement really._

"_R-really?" she asked. She hadn't noticed it herself, it sort of slipped her tongue automatically._

"_Mm," he hummed, closing his eyes again, arms behind his head, facing the sky. "You don't have to say it so much. It's not like there's anyone else around here, really. And it's not like you'll forget me soon, right?"_

_Orihime smiled rather embarrassedly, hoping he wouldn't see with his eyes closed. "Yeah, I suppose so… sorry," she apologized. Ichigo was about to ask why she did, but he held his tongue. He knew she didn't realise she did it._

_She was quiet. So he spoke up._

"_Hey." Still not opening his eyes. But he knew Orihime was looking at him and paying attention. "How long have we known each other?" he asked, seemingly capriciously._

"_Eh?" she sounded, looking confused, quite easily too. "Um…" she put on her thinking cap, putting a few fingers up to count. "Um… about five years, I guess. Since we started school… why?"_

_He was silent a second. "Hmm…" he sounded in contemplation, but not really so much thinking it over but more like "oh, hmm, interesting." Still not opening his eyes he responded. "I just realised… everyone else calls me by my first name. You're the only one who still calls me by my family name."_

_Her eyes widened slightly. "Oh… really?" she said again. She seemed to be saying that a lot._

"_Why?"_

_She blinked. "Eh? Why? … Why what?"_

"_Why don't you call me by my first name?" He wasn't inviting her, just inquiring._

_She didn't make to move of a good second, before she shrugged fruitlessly (Ichigo's eyes were closed, but he assumed she would do so anyways). "I don't know… it's a habit I guess?" she smiled innocently, scratching the back of her head despite there being no itch. She fell silent again._

"_Well… you don't have to call me by my family name…" he finished awkwardly. It wasn't really an invitation, just an announcement of the removal of a nonexistent barrier that she was perhaps waiting permission for. "Not many people have called me by my family name for awhile now…" What he had rather meant was… "People who aren't as close to me as you call me by my first name."_

_She twiddled her thumbs silently. She didn't necessarily know what to say… she sort of blushed under the implications of furthering their relationship, even by such a simplistic thing as catching her up to the rest of her class. "Then… why do you call me 'Inoue?'"_

_His eyebrows furrowed slightly in confusion, but he still didn't open his eyes. "That's your name, isn't it?" he asked. He knew perfectly well that that wasn't what he wanted to say._

"_Then… Kurosaki-kun is your name too, isn't it?" She was being pretty slick. And why? For a cause she didn't even quite comprehend herself._

"_Yeah," he conceded. "You… can still call me that if you want. I was just saying that you're the only one in our class that still does."_

_She was silent for a second. "Then… I'll be different, right?" Shoot. That sounded weird. She didn't really notice, but he did._

"_I suppose," he replied. He sounded like he didn't care, but in reality… he really didn't. He didn't understand how her mind worked, but if it suited her, it was fine. "If that's what you want."_

"_Mm-hmm," she nodded._

_But in her mind… she didn't feel worthy enough to call him by his first name. To call him by his first name would not only make her merely the same as the rest of their classmates, but it would make her feel further from him than ever. She didn't know why… when she called him Kurosaki-kun, maybe… maybe she felt she wanted to be so much closer to him than she was… she felt further from him than she wanted to be… so she didn't feel like she should call him his first name. If she called him his first name, she wouldn't be any closer to him than if she called him by his family name, and that would be horrible if she called him by such a close name yet felt so far away… as if she could never progress any further. He was still a mystery to her._

"_So, do I still call you Inoue?" he asked nonchalantly. It wasn't like he was very much concerned, but she seemed to be implying something there…_

"_I-if… that's what you want." Suddenly, her voice was timid. Somehow he felt that wasn't what she wanted._

"_What do you want me to call you?" he asked. Still no sign of concern in his voice. Just casual conversation._

_She wondered if she should say her first name. "I… don't know. It doesn't matter." It obviously did. If she made such a deal about his name, of course her name should be more important. He didn't know it, what with his eyes closed, but she was twiddling her fingers awkwardly._

"_Fine, then… 'seamstress' will do right?" he said lightly. Was that humour in his voice?_

"_What?!" she cried indignantly. "Why?" she asked. "I don't even sew that well!"_

"_Isn't that your name too?" he said innocently, smirking. "Besides, aren't you in the Crafts club too? It's practically perfect."_

"_Just because it translated into that doesn't mean that that's my name!" she said in a huff._

"_Then what else is there?" Ichigo pondered aloud._

Orihime,_ she thought._

"_There was the goddess Vega, but that's a little too high quality for you, isn't it? 'Goddess?'" he taunted. 'Vega sounds too cool too… how troublesome." She didn't quite understand, but she knew he had just insulted her. It didn't bother much what with not being called 'Goddess,' but Vega sounded pretty cool, like a super, ultra, mega, mecha-robotic Gundam or something… but she did admit that she hardly looked the part. _(Orihime remembered that later on in school, upon a project of how she saw herself in the future, she had created an elaborate scheme of becoming a mechanized Gundam, possibly in retaliation to the fact that at this current moment, Ichigo had insulted her on the dare that she couldn't be one… at which her naivety disregarded the scientific impossibilities and took it as a personal insult.)

"_Hmm…" he murmured. _Orihime_, she thought again, thought he would say._ _She wondered what was wrong with her own name. He had never said it before… If he called her by her first name, she felt it might invade upon the principle by which she didn't want to call him by his… but she had never heard him say it before. Of course, in a parallel way of his name, most people in class called her by her first name, at least the girls… perhaps guys called her Inoue too? She didn't quite remember, for the only time that it ever affected her was when _he_ said it. He said her last name so much, it was almost like it were in spite sometimes, although she knew it was really only because he was a gentleman. But still… she wanted to hear him say her name… maybe it would be as beautiful as when he said her last name._

"_How about 'Princess'?" he asked. She didn't know if he meant that as a joke or not._

"_Eh!? Isn't that as bad as 'Goddess'!?" Orihime exclaimed indignantly._

"_Definitely not!" Ichigo declared. "If you're a goddess, you actually have enough power to backup such a highly respectable title. If you're a princess you might just be a bratty little girl that just happened to be born into power, even if you don't deserve it." Orihime could swear he was smirking at her._

_She made a sour face. "Don't like it," she stated defiantly._

"_Why not?" he grinned. "It's practically perfect."_

"_How is that perfect for me?!" she cried. He made her seem really… selfish and shallow and self-absorbed._

"_Well…" he listed things off in his mind…"You're class president, so it's like being class royalty metaphorically anyways… and…sometimes you tend to be high maintenance and bossy… and you're as naïve and ignorant of the common people and reality, what with always living in that castle of yours…"_

"_What!?" Orihime cried halfheartedly. "How rude!" she yelled indignantly, trying to joke about it but it was hard to joke when the person she…respected… was insulting her. "I don't want it!" she said coldly, scrunching her nose in mock distaste and crossing her arms, trying to seem like it didn't hurt her, but she always had a way of revealing how hurt she was with a simple waver of her tinkling voice. She looked away to avoid eye contact._

"_I'm not even halfway done yet," he continued. "I haven't even gotten to how… princesses use their power to help people…" Orihime's gaze inched her way slowly around to face Ichigo, yet never quite letting him see her face. "… And how people look up to her… and how other girls wish they could be as beautiful as her… and how… everybody loves her… and how she always protect people and how… I always have to protect you…"_

_She was still facing away from him, her arms still crossed. She didn't move, even after he stopped talking. His eyes softened._

"_Sorry, Inoue… Don't worry, I won't call you that," he said in a gentle voice that only she ever heard, and only once every blue moon._

_She inched another inch around the circumference towards him, just barely out of his sight to see her expression. "Is that… really how I am?" Orihime asked hesitantly._

"_Not if you don't want it to be…" despite knowing how strong she was, Ichigo always had a tendency to treat her as if she were more fragile than anyone else, so as to ensure that she never broke, especially by him._

"_Waah!" Orihime turned to look at him grinning, scratching her head guiltily. "I'm amazing!!' she declared in awe. "I never knew how awesome I am!" she laughed praising, in a manner both unlike yet completely like Orihime all at once. She was never one to actually gloat and inflate her head, but… she couldn't help it!_

_Ichigo's right eye twitched amidst Orihime's raucous laughing. "Then… what… do you want me to call you that?" he asked, half-disbelievingly._

_She stopping patting herself on the back and looked at him genuinely in the eye, if any pain in there ever existed, no one would ever have known. She thought for a second, looking at him intensely in his eyes. She smiled softly, feeling a bit shy, yet its softness not taking away from the solidity of her words._

"_Okthen! You can call me that… on one condition." Ichigo's eyes widen slightly at the sound of Orihime's ultimatum, but her eyes neither strayed nor hardened. She restrained the temptation of twiddling her fingers._

"_You can call me that… if… you… promise to always protect me," she smiled. She felt like blushing for saying such outrageous things, but still, she couldn't help forget hat when he had said that, when he had said that he would protect her… she couldn't help feel so very, very happy. She didn't know why, but she wanted to feel that happiness again._

_Ichigo blinked, his eyes decently wide open. She blushed, and for his silence, she rambled on nervously. "That way… you can be different too!" She wanted him only to be hers… and wanted to only be his. She didn't know if the first would happen, but at least this way, the second wish would…_

_She continued to smile, first shyly, hesitantly, but soon evolving into that innocently charming way she always did._

_And in his reverie of her innocence, he agreed._

And Orihime could not help but feel chills in anguish of his broken promise.

**Author's Note**: I know Orihime means seamstress in reality, but as someone who doesn't know Japanese well and only watches it, it means me think of the "-hime" part, as in Princess more than the fact the entire thing means seamstress. Or since I wiki'd and read it, it also makes me think of the mythology but… "goddess?" Princess is easier because it's kinda like… it makes more sense for Ichigo, because it can be used both seriously and ironically and sarcastically, caustically. She's someone that he feels he has to protect… well, he feels he has to protect all of his friends and family really, but because of that, it means he's like her guard and reveres or whatever a better term is, too lazy. I should be doing my English essay… Anyways, when he feels he has to cheer her up, it's good to use and when he feels she's being rather pushy and attention-seeking, it can be used in a teasing sense, wherein "seamstress" is rather negative and "goddess" is rather too… celebrity stalker-ish. Yeah. I just think it's cute that in his way, he said she was pretty. She too realised it in her mind but doubted it, cause she seems like that kind of person to not realise an implied thing, or to realise things that aren't implied but she kinda picks at it and twists it to seem like it, or realises implied things but doubts herself for realizing it. That whole explanation about seeing things in 3rd person perspective… it had been bugging me and as a good author, I shoulda let the readers suffer cause it kinda reveals things, but it was nagging me and I s'pose it wasn't too much harm. I wouldn't want someone to correct me if it were meant as an open forum.

I have chapter 10 halfway done. School's almost out, maybe I can work on it more? I still have a lot to do, like write songs, finish the hat (which I worked on like 5 hours, found out it was too big, had to unravel, started again, worked for 5 hours, found out it was still too big, had to unravel, and started again, worked on it for 2 hours, found out it was fugly and had to unravel, worked on it for an hour, found out it was the wrong way, had to unravel, worked on a fin for an hour, found out one was too big and unraveled… and finally I was just like 'what the deuce" and just continued going. It's cute to me but if you look at the fins, it's like the fugliest thing a knitter can ever make) and finish Kingdom Hearts II before my friend can steal it, amongst other things like learning to drive. Yeah. So…


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